Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Scenes From Leland & Broadway

With the CTA's demolition of the old train tracks near the Wilson Station taking place at warp speed, here are some photos from Leland and Broadway taken on May 3, 2015. At the rate they're going, it won't look like this very long. We are assuming that the closure of the traffic lanes on Broadway next weekend will see the destruction of the bridge over Broadway. We'll know in a week.

These pillars held up tons of concrete (see Google Maps photo below) for nearly a century. Notice how much brighter and sunnier the intersection is without the second set of tracks above it.

The same corner last October (courtesy of Google Maps' Streetview).

A look toward Truman College and the rest of the tracks (on the right) that won't exist much longer. In fact, they're working on it today.

Uptown's version of Stonehenge. Get ready to say goodbye to the deep shadows over Broadway when this portion of the overpass comes down.

A "naked" view of the Uptown Broadway Building that's never been available before. Since it was built after the tracks were there, its shape was dictated by them. Now the tracks are gone and the beautiful "wedding cake building" remains. The shape reminds us of New York's Flatiron Building, which was designed by Chicagoan Daniel Burnham, who rests for eternity in Uptown's Graceland Cemetery.